1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chewing gum composition having excellent persistence in a flavor.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has so far been known that when a liquid flavoring is added to a chewing gum, it is taken in the gum base and reduced in generation of a flavor.
Accordingly, a flavoring is added to a chewing gum in a powder form in many cases. Also, a chewing gum stays in a mouth for a fixed time and is requested to provide a tasty flavor during chewing, and therefore a powdery flavoring is required in terms of persistence of a flavor.
Usually, a spray-drying method is a typical example of processes for producing a powdery flavoring with drying a liquid flavoring.
The spray-drying method is a very excellent method, but as shown in FIG. 6 (a), the resulting powder comprises very fine particles and therefore has such defects in handling that it is lacking in fluidity or absorbs moisture in a certain case. Further, the flavor is revealed partially at the beginning of chewing.
In recent years, fine particles obtained by spray-drying are pelletized to granules for the purposes of improving the physical properties and the flavor thereof, and apparatuses provided with a function of fluidized bed granulation in a spray-drying apparatus have been developed.
Granular flavorings produced by these apparatuses are formed by a granulation mechanism of fluidized bed agglomeration and are of an amorphous form having a porous agglomerating structure as shown in FIG. 6 (b). Therefore, while they are improved in physical properties, they have the problem that when they are added to a chewing gum, the flavor is revealed partially at the beginning of chewing and lacking in persistence.
Also, as shown in FIG. 6 (c), granulated flavorings obtained by a wet stirring-granulating apparatus are as well of an amorphous form having a porous agglomerating structure. Therefore, while they are improved in physical properties similarly to the case described above, they have the problem that when they are added to a chewing gum, the flavor is revealed partially at the beginning of chewing and lacking in persistence.
Further, when producing spherical granulates which are dense and have a beautiful appearance as a finished product, an extrusion granulating apparatus is used. As shown in FIG. 6 (d), in this case, cylindrical pellets are once produced and then subjected to a rolling type sphering apparatus to be molded into spherical granules, and they are subjected to finish drying. Accordingly, involved are the problems that a lot of steps are required and that the resulting granules have a too large particle diameter, so that it is inadequate in a certain case to use them as a powder flavoring for a chewing gum.
Accordingly, it is the existing situation that a satisfactory flavoring which is suited to a chewing gum composition as a flavoring having excellent persistence has not yet been obtained and that a chewing gum composition having excellent persistence in a flavor is desired.
The present invention is intended to solve the conventional problems described above, and an object thereof is to provide a chewing gum composition which is retarded a flavor component from eluting in a mouth and reveals a strong flavor even after staying in a mouth for a long time and which has excellent persistence in a flavor.
Intensive researches repeated by the present inventors in order to solve the conventional problems described above have resulted in finding that a powder flavoring to be added to a chewing gum which comprises firm and dense granules is the most suited to persistence in a flavor and further finding that the granular flavoring is produced by granulating by means of a specific apparatus which can continuously produce spherical granules directly from a liquid raw material, and thus the present invention has been completed.
That is, the present invention comprises the following items (1) to (4):
(1) A chewing gum composition containing a granular flavoring having a bulk density of 0.40 to 0.95 g/cm3 which is obtained by a fluidized bed layering granulating method using a spray-drying type fluidized bed granulating apparatus capable of continuously producing spherical granules directly from a liquid raw material.
(2) The chewing gum composition as described in the above item (1), wherein the granular flavoring has a hardness of 0.5 to 1.0 gf/mm2.
(3) The chewing gum composition as described in the above item (1) or (2), wherein the granular flavoring has an average particle diameter of 50 to 1000 xcexcm.
(4) The chewing gum composition as described in any of the above items (1) to (3), wherein the granular flavoring is contained in a proportion of 0.01 to 5% by weight based on the total amount of the chewing gum composition.